Have you ever been PASSED on a run?

I have been passed many, many times.

Interestingly, the only two times I can remember being passed on a training run, other than on slow cool-downs from workouts, were by women. The first time I was running slower than usual on New Year's Day. I remember thinking at the time that this was the first time anyone had passed me on a run. The second was on a typical run when I was probably running about 6:30 pace. I chased her down to see who she was and to recruit her for our club, but it turned out she wasn't even training to race, just out burning off some steam!

When I run back at my parent's house on the suburbs of Houston, I can honestly say in the 6 years of running over there I've never been passed running down the road.

... When I'm training with my teammates, obviously that's different.

Yeah, I get passed all the time, often by runners I've passed moments earlier. And other runners are always speeding up to keep me from passing them. Young guys, old guys, women - doesn't make a difference. My buddies who run don't seem to have this happen to them, so I gotta figure it's because not only am I middle-aged, but I'm bald. No one wants to be passed or caught by the middle-aged bald guy.

Just a couple days ago, some young guy (20's) whipped by me on the trail, literally kicking up dirt into my face as he blasted past. I figured - good, at least he's gonna keep going, not fall apart and make me catch him again. Alas, a mile up the trail, there he is, standing at the side of the trail, waiting for me. He starts running with me, asks me if I want to do a 3 mile loop around the Rose Bowl. I explain that I'm just "jogging" (a code word that usually scares off younger, self-aggrandizing runners), and he tells me that he's just jogging too. Right ...

Two days later, again at the Rose Bowl, some gal who has to be my age sees me coming over her shoulder and takes off at a sprint. The poor woman runs until drool is sliding over her chin and dropping to her shoulder, then finally relents - refusing to meet my eyes as I run past.

As for me, I neither speed up nor slow down regardless of what anyone else is doing. I'm too old to make mistakes with my training ... but not quite old enough to get ornery with wannabe's who think every run is a potential race and every other runner on the road the competition.

how many other runners do you guys honestly encounter?

I had never been passed in 8+ years of running until a couple of years ago. I was just coming off of a little injury and hadn't run in about 3 months. I went to a popular trail around a lake, where there are always a lot of people, but very few who are really that fast. Mostly just older people jogging and walking and a lot of cyclists. Anyway, i was about 2 miles into a 4.5 mile run in my first week back running and a girl passed me. Being a very competitive guy I did not like being passed by anybody on a training run, but coming back from injury I was not about to strain and try to hold her off. I just told myself it's my first week back running and it really doesn't matter. I'm not fast by any means but probably faster than the majority of people who run at that lake (i've run 4:03 in the 1500 and a 25:47 8k both run about a year after being passed). If I get passed, i try to be disciplined and just run the same pace i was running.

I think one thing is clear from this thread - both men AND women have a tendency to speed up when a runner is approaching them. I have had many instances with women altering their pace when they hear me coming, only to fall apart 50 meters later.

When I was in college, my teammates and I were doing a long run on a Sunday morning. We always did our long runs between 6:00-6:30/mile (probably faster than I should have gone).

Anyway, this one particular Sunday, we were running on the sidewalk on the right side of the street, and on the opposite side, a runner came up from behind us, passed, then turned left into a neighborhood. This runner was

1- a woman

2- pushing one of those running strollers with an infant in it (so arguably we got passed by TWO people)

3- passing us up a hill.

We were astonished, but didn't think to ask her who she was. I've always since wondered if there was some Oly hopeful marathoner training in Iowa City at the time, because I never thought an entire college cross team could get owned by a woman with a stroller.

Feel free to mock me at any time.

Funny stuff Pete!

I never used to get passed. Now that my slow days are 7+ pace, it happens somedays. I usually get out a "good job" when they do.

I will sometimes run down a popular trail along the river here in Redmond, it is fun to focus on someone way out front and just cruise up to them and then look for someone else. Helps me get through some runs. On quicker days, only those on bikes pass and then I try to hang on them before inevitable death!

Be nice,

ty

The first time I tried cross country skiing, I was passed by a woman walking in high heels through the snow.

aghh this reminds me of a story from this track season. my teammates and i were on a pretty long run (80 min) at around 6:40 pace on these skinny trails in the hills when we saw this guy with a dog up ahead doing about 9's. as we get closer he starts to speed up, and as we pass him he tells us that he is going to hang on to us for awhile. no problem really, except for the fact that his dog starts cutting us off making one of our kids trip and fall hard. still he continues running with us not even apologizing for the dog. next a bike comes up behind us wanting to pass, and the dog almost makes the biker fall of a steep decline. the guy doesnt give a crap and just stays with us. im getting really pissed so i look at my friend next to me and give him the nod and wekick the pace down to 5 min pace and the guy still trys to stay with us. this lasted about 10 seconds then he was gone. on the way back (out and back loop) we saw him again and the fricken dog tripped another kid on our team. most rediculous slow ass runner ever. agghh i hate people who try to run with people out of their league.

The joy of running 8:50 miles on a landice treadmill in my basement, no one can pass my slow azz.

I can remember being passed by a few people on training runs over the years, but one moment in a race stands out in particular. It was the Utica Boilermaker in 2005 and was blazing hot out. I was having a rough day and had stopped and walked to get some water about 7 miles in because I was just falling apart. With about 600 meters left I was content to just cruise it in when one of the Hanson's women comes up on my shoulder and starts giving me some encouragement like "let's go" or something. All of a sudden I just took off into a dead sprint, I don't think I've ever run that fast in my life, and I didn't look back. I think I ended up beating her by 10 or 15 seconds. I've been beaten by women before, have no problem running with them, and I know there are a good number out there faster than me, but for some reason that day something snapped.